Food
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Penne pasta with grilled courgettes and pine nuts
This pasta dish is a great one for when I’m stumped for something to cook. Other than the courgettes the rest of the ingredients are usually in the cupboard. It’s reasonable simple to prepare as well - not to mention really tasty.
Grilling the Courgettes
Firstly slice the courgettes lengthways into half centimetre strips and season with a little sea salt and blank pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil, enough to lightly coat all the courgettes.
Usually I grill the courgettes in a grill-pan, though I have successfully done them under a grill as well. Make sure that they begin to blister on one side before turning them over and grilling the other side. This will take a little while as you’ll probably have to grill the slices in batches - that is unless you happen to have a catering size chargrill in your kitchen!
Parmesan, lemon and chili dressing
Whilst the courgettes are grilling away prepare the dressing by squeezing the juice of one small lemon into a mixing jug or similar vessel. Add to this the chopped garlic and chili and then slowly add the olive oil whilst whisking vigorously. Stir in the finely grated Parmesan and season with sea salt. You will not need any black pepper as the chili will spice the dressing up on its own.
Once the courgettes are all grilled slice them accross into 1 cm thick slices and place in a large mixing bowl. Meanwhile in a dry frying pan toast off the pine nuts until golden brown to help release their flavour, add these to the courgettes once ready.
Put a large pan of salted water on to boil, once boiled add your penne pasta - stirring immediately to prevent it from sticking together. Continue on a rolling boil for approximately 8-10 minutes (depending on the instructions for the pasta). When ready drain the pasta and add this to the mixing bowl along with the dressing and toss together thoroughly. If you don’t have penne pasta available then fusili or similar will do fine.
Serve with final sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
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Oven temperature conversions
I’ve been caught without a gas mark conversion chart too often so I decided to put one up on here for reference.
Fahrenheit Celcius Gas mark 225 110 1/4 250 120/130 1/2 275 140 1 300 150 2 325 160/170 3 350 180 4 375 190 5 400 200 6 425 220 7 450 230 8 475 240 9 -
Steak with honey-glazed root vegetables
As I walked past the butchers this evening I first reveled in the fact that they were still open and then at the wonderful looking piece of ribeye steak (you can tell a good piece by the amount of ‘marbling‘, the fat is where the flavour comes from), I thought some root veg, glazed with honey and thyme - Nice! And not much fuss either.
Roasting the vegetables
First set your oven to around 200 C / gas mark 6 into which place the largest roasting tray you have with a enough olive oil to thinly cover the base, this is to bring both the tray and the oil (in the fine words of Keith Floyd) “up to cooking speed”.
All the veg needs chopping into equal chunks of about 2-3 cms, first chop the potato and put in a pan of cold water. Bring to the boil, then after about a minute turn the heat off and add the other veg, these only really a minute to give them some heat. Drain off all the water and return the pan to the heat for a few seconds to dry it out, once the veg has drained put them back in the pan and remove from the heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil (and I naughtily add a nog of butter), a little pepper, the thyme (pull the leaves from the sprigs) and two teaspoons of runny honey. Stir all this together to coat the veg and add to your roasting tray in the over - make sure that the veg is evenly spread, giving the heat a chance to get at as much of the honey as possible. The veg will take between 30-40 minutes to cook depending on how small or large your chunks are. Stir the veg every 10 minutes so that every side of the veg gets even cooked.
Grilling the steak
Once you have the veg in the oven prepare the steaks by sprinkling them with freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Do not, however, season with salt at this stage as it will bring the juices out of the steak to soon. Rub this into the steaks.
As with the veg, cooking time for the steak will depend on their thinkness and how you like them cooked. My preferred method of cooking steak is using a grill pan. Start grilling the steak about 15 minutes before your veg is due to be ready, making sure you’ve got the pan really hot - the steak should start to sizzle imediatly - be sure to turn the heat down if the pan gets too hot.
A trick for judging how cooked a steak is is to touch your thumb and your first finger together, now prod the muscle at the base of your thumb. This will feel quite soft and be something like a rare steak should feel to the touch (obviously use a utensil when you prod the steak!). Touching your thumb and index finger for medium rare, your ring finger for medium and the little one for, God forbid, well done.
With this in mind I’d give your steaks about 7/6 minutes on the first size, preferrably you should only move the steak to turn it 45 degrees to get a criss-cross pattern. Once you’ve flipped the steak you should only need another 4 minutes tops. This is now the time to sprinkle liberally with sea salt, you sill see the juices begin to come out. Once cooked to your liking rest the steaks, that is to say allow the meat to relax, for about 5 minutes - don’t worry abobut them not being piping hot, they are much the better for it.
Whilst the steaks are resting add half a glass of red wine and a nog of unsalted butter to the grill pan to deglaze it, this makes for a lovely French-style ‘jus’ to go over your steak and veg, which by now will have caramelised beautifully… Mmm…
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Roast sirloin of beef
When it comes to a traditional joint of roast beef nothing beats a good piece of sirloin. It is a little extravagent at £20 the kilo, but well worth it in my opinion! For this roast you’ll need a joint of at least 1.5 kilos to cook properly - this should be easily enough for 4 or 5 people.Firstly season the joint liberally with salt and pepper a few hours in advance, when you’re ready to roast it weigh it to determine its weight. The cooking time of the beef can be calculated at 35 minutes per kilo (15 per pound) for rare meat, for well done (God forbid!) add another 20 minutes (in total) or so.
Start the meat off in a large baking tray as hot as your oven allows (about 260 C / gas mark 9) for the first 10 minutes, then turn it down to 180 C (gas mark 4) for the remaining time.
Whilst your meat is roasting peel the parsnips and cut into quaters lengthways, put them in a pan with cold water and bring to the boil. Once boiled remove the parsnips and drizzle with a little olive oil and add some salt and pepper. Half an our before the beef is ready put the ’snips into the roasting tin with the beef, turning them occasionaly giving them a good coating of the beef juices.
Once the meat is ready remove from the roasting tin and set aside to rest for a good ten minutes - transfer the parsnips to another dish so that you can make some gravy in the roasting tin with the left over juices from the joint.
To do this first drain off any excess dripping, saving for your yorkshires on another day. Add the glass of red wine to the tin, a little bit of tomato puree - this soaks up a little of the grease and also helps thinken the gravy slightly. Add to this a small amount of water (I find the water from boiling carrots perfect) and reduce all this together, stirring constantly with a woden spoon to get all the lovely caramelised juices from the bottom of the tin. This will produce a wonderful gravy to go with a wonderful joint of beef.
This roast is, of course, best served with Yorkishire pudding.
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Yorkshire pudding
This is a recipe that I have adapted from Jane Grigson’s English Food - I can’t recommend this book highly enough as a wonderful celebration of English cooking. It is true that, as a nation, we did once have something to shout about when it came to food.
Mix together the flour and the seasoning in a mixing bowl, making a well in the centre into which you place the eggs. Add a little of the milk (about half) and begin stirring (from the centre) to make a batter, adding the as much of the remaining milk as you need. The batter should be a creamy consistency but should still pouring consistency.
Make the batter a good hour before you need it, allowing it to settle in the fridge, this allows the air bubbles to escape giving a much smoother batter, resulting in less ‘holely’ puddings.
I prefer to make lots of individual puddings in a cake tin - take your cake tin and add a little dripping or lard (oil will suffice if neither dripping or lard is available) to each of the wells and heat in the oven until the dripping is bubbling. Once hot laddle the batter into each well, it should start to bubble imediately. Place in the oven (at 200C/gas mark 7), on a shelf under the meat, for 25 minutes until the puddings have risen and taken on a even brown colour.
In Grigson’s book there is a wonderful recipe for Yorkshires taken from The Whole Duty of Woman, published in 1737. I have never actually tried this recipe but simply like the language used:
Take a quart of milk, four eggs, and a little salt, make it up into a thick batter with flour like a pancake batter. You must have a good piece of meat at the fire, take a stew-pan and put some dripping in, set it on the fire; when it boils, pour on your pudding; let it bake on the fire till you think it is high enough, then turn a plate upside-down in the dripping pan [i.e. the pan under the joint] that the dripping may not be blackedl set your stew pan on it under the meat, and let the dripping drop on the pudding, and teh heat of the fire come to it, to make it of a fine brown. When your meat is done and sent to table, drain all the fat from your pudding, and set it on the fire again to dry a little; then slide it as dry as you can into a dish, melt some butter, and pour it into a cup, and set it in the middle of the pudding. It is an exceeding good pudding; the gravy of the meat eats well with it.
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Happy 18th birthday The Eagle
The Eagle’s 18th birthday was marked by a few drinks last night with staff from over the ages gathering to take over the pub.
A great evening catching up with long-lost former colleagues, some of whom I’ve not seen for over 10 years! Sadly there were some who, given the short notice, could not make it - notably David Eyre, one of the original founders. Still, it was great to see those that did make it.
One thing that struck me last night was how the Eagle has not changed in the years that I’ve known it - going on 13! - This is a perfect example of a winning formula - but then they did create the ‘Gastro Pub’ genre.
Happy Birthday, The Eagle, you’ve come of age!
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Marinated Leg of Lamb
So simple to prepare and always a big hit, this dish was a useful one in our armory at the Eagle and is a perfect alternative to the usually dull bbq staples of sausages and burgers.
The marinade
The marinade is best done in food processor, but one is not essential. If you’ve got the time and patience, stone about 2 dozen black, Kalamata olives - otherwise you can always use ones already pitted or even use some Kalamata olive paste/pate in its place. Add the peeled cloves of garlic, the anchovies and add the rosemary having removed the leaves from their stems. Whiz all this together in the food processor until a sooth paste. If you don’t have a food processor then you’ll have to labouriously chop all the ingredients by hand - this is where the paste option comes into its own!
The leg of lamb needs to be butterflied, by this I mean opened out off the bone so it rolls out like a carpet, you can get your butcher to do this for you. Once butterflied make any further length-way slices into the thicker pieces of meat in order to even it out - this will allow the meat to cook evenly. You may also want to separate the whole leg into more manageable pieces depending on the size of leg/barbeque that you have.
The best way to apply this marinade is to liberally spread it all over the lamb and then place the meat in a clean plastic bag (without holes!), add any remaining marinade and tie the bag shut making sure you expel as much air as possible. Once sealed massage the marinade into the meat through the bag. For best results marinade the lamb the night before so that it has a chance to fully permeate the meat.
Grilling the meat
Best done over a barbeque (unless you happen to have a chargrill in your kitchen!), but also possible to use a caste iron grill-pan - you’ll have to do smaller pieces though. Once the barbeque is really hot, without any flames place the lamb skin-side down, leave it be if at all possible - moving it only to prevent it from singeing - if the coals begin to flame you may want to raise your grill if at all possible, be careful not to char the meat. After about 10 minutes turn the lamb and season the cooked side generously with seat salt and black pepper. Grill this side for a further 10 minutes.
In an idea world I would have another grill mesh, higher from the coals and would move the leg to there to rest for a further 10 minutes or so, just to finish the meat. However if you don’t have this luxury simply cook for a little longer (2/3 minutes) and rest away from the heat for a further 5. If the first few slices are too rare for your liking you can always pop the lamb back on the heat to cook a little more
Once rested the lamb can be sliced length-ways (from hip to shin), a touch more salt and pepper and I like to finish off with a drizzle of quality Jerez sherry vinegar - this seems to really bring the flavours out.
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Move on, there’s nothing to see here (yet!)
Too busy! Though I thought at least a preview of what will be.
Code
- XHTML/CSS tricks
- jQuery plugins
- General rambling on the state of front-end technologies
Food
- Recipes: from my catering years and family cookbooks
- Reviews and opinion: places I like to shop and eat
Oh, and of course a rather un-conventional approach to building a website.